Monday, August 6, 2018

Summer Ends, A New Year Begins!---Danielle's August Update

The FOCUS Staff just returned from our biannual staff retreat with our group of new apprentices; we have 12 new apprentices joining our staff for the 2018-2019 school year! Two of them, Samantha Pruitt and Alex Garcia, will be working on the Collin College team. I'm especially excited because these two are recent graduates from UNT, which is where I've been doing ministry for the past two years, so I know them well!

During our staff retreat we each shared stories about the 3 most impactful events in our lives. It was a great way for us to get to know the apprentices, as well as learn new things about the people we've been working with for many years. One thing that struck me is how many of our team members have dealt with death, illness, abuse, and other suffering. The majority of our staff is still very young but have experienced many hard things. They all have stories of how God has worked through their suffering to bring greater life than they could have imagined. I am so excited for our staff to start a new year of loving on college students while helping them deal with life's hard stuff.

We got some shaved ice on our staff retreat!

Brandon is a sun-bathing beauty ;)

Not sure what story Pedro is sharing here but it must have been intense...

This past week I got to spend time with some of the Collin College leaders that I'll be mentoring this year, and I'm so excited! I can already tell that we are going to have so much fun on mission together.

Driving these girls around is already crazy!

Please be in prayer for our team and our students as the school year approaches! Next weekend we are getting our Collin College student leaders together to prepare for the school year. After that, school will be right around the corner and we will be busy meeting new students every day. This can sometimes be an overwhelming experience for our students that aren't very extroverted. We are praying for boldness for our leaders and that God would already be preparing the hearts of new students he wants us to encounter this month. I can't wait! Thanks to all of you who are supporting the mission on campus and allowing me to do what I love. I'm so grateful to have you all as partners and friends!

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About Me

I joined FOCUS while a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas. It was there that I learned what it meant to be a disciple of Christ. I graduated with a Master's degree in Communication Disorders in 2011. Two years after graduation I became a ministry intern with FOCUS at The University of North Texas in Denton. After my internship, I joined the FOCUS staff at Collin College in Plano, and worked there for 2 years. After that I went back to Denton to serve at TWU for 2 years, and God has so kindly allowed me to come back to Collin, where (hopefully) I'll stay for a while!